Ramirez, AlejandorRathinam, Vijay A. K.Fitzgerald, Katherine AGolenbock, Douglas T.Mathew, Anuja2022-08-232022-08-232012-12-112013-03-04Immun Ageing. 2012 Dec 11;9(1):27. doi: 10.1186/1742-4933-9-27. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1742-4933-9-27" target="_blank">Link to article on publisher's site</a> 2012 Ramirez et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.1742-4933 (Linking)10.1186/1742-4933-9-2723228123https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/39589BACKGROUND: Cytokines regulated by the inflammasome pathway have been extensively implicated in various age-related immune pathologies. We set out to elucidate the contribution of the nod-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome pathway to the previously described deficiencies in IL-1beta production by macrophages from aged mice. We examined the production of pro-IL-1beta and its conversion into IL-1beta as two separate steps and compared these cytokine responses in bone marrow derived macrophages from young (6-8 weeks) and aged (18-24 months) C57BL/6 mice. FINDINGS: Relative to macrophages from young mice, macrophages from aged mice produced less pro-IL-1beta after TLR4 stimulation with LPS. However upon activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome with ATP, macrophages from young and aged mice were able to efficiently convert and secrete intracellular pro-cytokines as functional cytokines. CONCLUSIONS: Lower levels of IL-1beta production are a result of slower and lower overall production of pro-IL-1beta in macrophages from aged mice.en-US© 2012 Ramirez et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Interleukin-1betaMacrophagesCarrier ProteinsImmunology and Infectious DiseaseDefective pro-IL-1beta responses in macrophages from aged miceJournal Articlehttps://escholarship.umassmed.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3383&context=oapubs&unstamped=1https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/oapubs/23833830683oapubs/2383